The Irony Complication
by WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: Penny's afraid.  And she's afraid because what she's always wanted is what she thinks she's found. Pairings: The guy is never named; I ship L/P but you can read this as Penny/Whoever You Want.


**This is literally something my subconscious drew up. Actually, the basic idea was something my subconscious drew up, this fic is my pathetic attempt to get it on paper. So I'm really sorry if it's bad.**

**This is written by a Leonard/Penny shipper, but I never mention the name "Leonard" in the fic, so in all actuality, it can be read as Penny/Whoever You Ship With Penny. Leonard, Zack, Raj, Stuart, Sheldon…whoever! Although I guess it can't be Penny/Kurt because I specify the relationship she's thinking about happened after Kurt, but seriously, who ships Penny/Kurt?**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. I wish I did, though. Don't we all?**

"_I wasn't a romance guy," Wyatt said, holding Penny on his lap. "But I went through school, living my life, and then one day I met your mother and fell in love. You'll meet someone someday to make you feel that way, too."_

"_When?" Penny had asked._

"_You're eight years old," Wyatt told her, smiling. "It'll be years from now."_

* * *

Penny has known from the time she was a little girl that people grew up, met, fell in love, and got married. It was just what people _did_. That was how it always _happened_.

Of course, as she grows up she learns that it doesn't happen to everyone; some people marry the wrong people, some people never fall in love at all. It adds some sort of mystery to her life, as she doesn't know, as of her teenage years, if she will ever fall in love at all. She knows there is a chance that somewhere out there, in this crazy world of billions of people, there exists someone who is a perfect match for her. Someone who she can love wholeheartedly, and who she never will doubt the love they return.

But she also knows there is a chance that she will never find that person. What are the odds of missing them? She isn't good at math, but she does know the definition of the word _overwhelming_, and she feels the odds are close to that. She wants to find that one person, but at least the adventure, the unknown, makes her otherwise work – a – day life more exciting.

She develops relationships with several guys, but each relationship ended because, in one way or another, they prove they aren't the One. They cheat on her, they steal from her, they suggest three – ways or other actions that she finds off – putting. She realizes that they are just stepping stones in her search for the One, but after being broken time and time again she begins to doubt she'll ever find him.

She's twenty – one when she meets him. She just doesn't realize he's the One yet. When she does start realizing this, it terrifies her. Terrifies her because she can't believe that out of the billions of people on this planet someone like _this_ has found her and made her feel this way. Terrifies her because she's in her mid – twenties now and she thinks her search is over. She searches a bit more to make sure, and yes, she believes that this is it. This is someone who she can love wholeheartedly, and who she never will doubt the love they return.

But she isn't ready for it yet. She knows he's different than the rest, all of the boyfriends of her past, but those same _rest_ are too recent to forget. The odds are so overwhelming against her that it seems too unlikely that she's found someone like this so young. There has to be something about him that would turn her away, because she's not the kindest or luckiest person in the world, and its borderline impossible that she was rewarded with someone like him. Not now.

She had begun to believe, after her breakup with Kurt all those years ago, that she'd mistake affection for love in her late thirties, and marry someone simply because time was running out and she wanted to end up with _someone_. With mismatched marriages oh, so common nowadays, she has developed the belief that she won't find love the way that everyone dreams, in the twenties; find and marry the one person in this world who is a perfect match for her. No, that wasn't how it would happen, no matter how much she had tried to convince herself that the dream would in fact happen to her.

Love in the twenties, a happy relationship destined to withstand the test of time…it was all Penny had ever wanted when it came to romance, and what is scaring her even more than her past and baggage is the fact that she thinks it's actually happening to her, and she doesn't know what the hell she's done to deserve it.

Fear that what she wanted was actually happening. Irony is cruel.


End file.
